Festival of New Dance: A splendid spectator sport
Ninety-seven artists and technicians, 19 performances, 12 pop-ups, community discussions, off-site events, six venues, six workshops, five provincial school visits, four world premieres, three works in development engagements, two provincial tours, and one Atlantic Canadian tour – this is the 28th annual Festival of New Dance by the numbers.
These stats, compiled by Neighbourhood Dance Works artistic director Calla Lachance, capture the magnitude of the festival, but the numbers don’t reflect the magic of the FND.
I’m very fond of the FND – in fact, it was a 2014 Festival of New Dance show, Peter Trosztmer’s “EESTI: Myths and Machines,” that inspired me to write what would become my first review.
This review of the 2018 festival comes after a few more years of practice, but nothing can prepare oneself to critique the magic and mystery of the ever-evolving Festival of New Dance.
FND kicked off on Sept. 24, with performances starting on the 28th.
With so many events and so little free time, I narrowed it down to two evening performances: Shay Kuebler/radical System Art’s “Telemetry” on Oct. 1, and a double feature of Catherine Wright’s “Devil’s Purse” and Roger Sinha’s “Burning Skin” on Oct. 2.
On an oval floor surrounded by a track, tap dancer Danny Nielsen entered, his fast feet creating echoing percussion on the miked track. The rhythm Nielsen created was reflected in the intricate lighting set up – the louder the tap, the brighter the light.
Eight dancers slowly filled the empty oval floor, feeding off Nielsen and his percussive patterns.
The shadows created by the dancers, as they interacted with a dangling, swinging light, invoked memories of Peter Pan and his shadow.
With visual effects projected onto the floor, the performance was captivating, the constantly tap-dancing Nielsen became an afterthought, as the eight dancers made great use of the large space.
The modern performance borrowed elements from hiphop, jazz and contemporary dance, the seemingly random movements clearly well rehearsed.
Catherine Wright’s “Devil’s Purse” was also well rehearsed, the local dancer drawing her inspiration from the sea, and objects from the sea, specifically the “devil’s purse,” a colloquial title given to skate egg casings, a small black, seaweed-like square pod with projecting horns on each corner.
Wright recalled childhood trips to the beach, and used her imagination to personify the devil, and his purse, with puppetry, shadow play and video visual accompaniments.
The set for Roger Sinha’s “Burning Skin” was more elaborate, featuring five tables topped with five boiling kettles, their whistles perfectly timed with the music.
“Burning Skin” was heavily inspired by Hanif Kureishi, a British writer who tells a story of a person of colour jumping into boiling water, after hearing this act would bleach his brown skin.
Sinha was deeply affected by Kureishi’s work, having spent a lifetime rejecting his Indian heritage in an effort to assimilate into Canadian culture.
The energetic and moving piece, performed by Mark Sawh Medrano, deals with racism, heritage and diversity. It was created in 1993 and is still sadly relevant in 2018.
This is just a snippet of the many amazing events that make up the stacked Festival of New Dance lineup, and I’m already excited to spend the weekend taking it all in.